Blue is Me

Tag: brand

  • What is your fashion style?

    Age 14–18

    When I was in high school.. no style lol. I just wore anything that was cheap from Gap or Old Navy. Basically jeans or any cool looking sweater or shirt I could find. Most high school kids here can’t really dress that well. (This is when I kind of wished North America would have nice looking school uniforms like in Asia).

    Pretty typical of my high school style – I always wore a baseball cap back then, Adidas jacket, any kind of casual T-shirt I thought looked cool, and cheap jeans.

    Age 18–23

    In university, I became inspired by a lot of 1940s-1960s style.

    mm… yeah I liked my neckties back then.

    So during university, I experimented alot with blazers, suits, ties, military jackets, navy uniforms, fedoras etc stuff like that I felt looked vintage and cool. I didn’t care much about brands back then just liked vintage style.

    Age 23–26

    After I moved to San Francisco, I went mainstream brand heavy. Abercombie shirts, Express shirts and jeans, Lucky Brand jeans, American Eagle jeans, etc. Also wore alot more casual stuff like hoodies since that is the engineer norm in the West coast after all. I usually wore Converse or Vans shoes back then.

    I would also buy some import Asian clothing from Yesstyle – expensive, but had some cool styles.

    So yeah.. Hoodie or Abercombie shirt, Express jeans, Vans shoes.. that’s pretty typical of me back then

    Abercombie sweater, Asian style jacket from Yesstyle, Ray Ban sunglasses

    Wore a lot of plaid collar shirts back then too.. haha usually Banana Republic or Express. And yeah Converse low cut chucks what a classic.

    Leather jackets were also a go to for me in colder weather and yes I did wear flat caps for a while too!

    Leather jacket, plaid collar shirt, jeans and Vans was typical outfit for me back then.

    Age 26–31

    I lived in Korea for 2 years during this time and so was heavily influenced by Korean fashion style.

    So I usually wore tight fitting clothes – skinny jeans, collar shirts with the sleeves rolled up, Converse or Adidas type sneakers were my go to.

    In colder weather I would stick to down padding type jackets.

    I didn’t care too much about brands anymore at this time, just the style. Outer zippered jacket with pockets, skinny jeans, Onitsuka Tiger shoes.

    Going all white – Korean style often involves tight fitting clothing and a ‘neat’ appearance and white definitely adds to that, which is probably why I wore white a lot back then – and still do today!

    Even after coming back to San Francisco kept the Korean influenced style for another few years – some Korean label shirt, skinny jeans and Adidas superstar sneakers here.

    Age 31-present

    I would say now my fashion sense is a hybrid – I have some brand name stuff from Western brands but also keeping some of my Korean influenced style as well. In colder weather I stick to a Woods parka, Guess leather jacket or a Eddie Bauer padding jacket. I have some Lacoste chinos, Hugo Boss shirts, Lacoste or Fred Perry polos, True Religion or Lucky Brand skinny jeans, and stick to Adidas superstar sneakers or Puma suede sneakers – can’t go wrong with them! Oh and traditional mechanical watches are a must for me. I’m not a huge fan of smartwatches.

    You can see I still keep some of my Korean influenced style – striped shirts, clean looking blazers, skinny jeans or chinos, Adidas / FILA sneakers – and yes those are Gentle Monster (Korean brand) sunglasses.

  • What is the best audio equipment brand?

    I guess I can separate this into equipment and price tiers.

    See, it all depends on the tier. There is no ‘best’, there could be better sounding *at the same price point* but once you get up higher in price, my belief is there is no ‘best’ or ‘better’ at the higher end, just different depending on what type of sound you like.

    Headphones/IEMs

    Affordable Tier

    Audio-Technica

    V-Moda

    Beats

    FiiO

    AKG

    Koss

    Etymotic

    Mid-range Tier

    Sony (they are in every tier but I like their mid range the best)

    Sennheiser (they are in every tier but I like their mid range the best)

    Denon

    Grado

    Master&Dynamic

    Bowers&Wilkins

    Bang&Olufsen

    Shure

    High end Tier

    Meze Audio

    Audeze

    Hifiman

    64Audio

    Empire Ears

    Vision Ears

    Campfire Audio

    JH Audio

    Noble Audio

    Stax

    Focal

    Abyss

     

    Speakers

    Affordable Tier

    Emotiva

    SVS

    Edifier

    Nakamichi

    Yamaha

    Pioneer

    LG

    Samsung

    Onkyo

    JBL

    Audioengine

    Fluance

    Kanto

    Philips

    JAMO

    Mid-range Tier

    Polk Audio

    Def Tech

    Klipsch

    Sony

    Bose

    Sonos

    Q Acoustics

    Triangle

    Totem

    Genelec

    Harman Kardon

    High end Tier

    Neat Acoustics

    PMC

    Quad

    ATC

    Spendor

    Harbeth

    Monitor Audio

    KEF

    Bowers&Wilkins

    KLH

    Revel

    Wilson

    GoldenEar

    Paradigm

    Buchardt

    Dali

    Dynaudio

    Focal

    Acoustic Energy

    Sonus Faber

    Devialet

    MartinLogan

    Magnepan

    Tekton

     

    Amplifiers/DACs

    Affordable Tier

    Denon

    Onkyo

    Schiit

    Topping

    Chord

    Mid-range Tier

    NAD

    Peachtree Audio

    Cambridge Audio

    Marantz

    High end Tier

    Technics

    Accuphase

    Luxman

    McIntosh

    PS Audio

    Naim

    Linn

    Rega

    Roksan

    Cyrus

    Arcam

    Simaudio

    Anthem

    Lyngdorf

    Burmester

    Mark Levinson

    Parasound

    Meridian

    dCS

    Hegel

    Pass

    Bryston

    Creek

    Krell

    Musical Fidelity

  • What is your favorite brand of potato chips?

    I got quite a few.

    1. Covered Bridge

    This company hails from New Brunswick, Canada and they made some really nice chips, love the flavor and texture of these. Not sure how widely available they are in the US but in Canada I would usually go for these.

    2. Dirty

    When I lived in California, I loved snacking on these things! They were super crunchy!

    3. Miss Vickie’s

    These are a true Canadian classic and one of the few Canadian originated brands that I actually saw quite often in the US too!

    4. Tyrells

    Maybe it’s the UK style advertising on this chip or something, there’s something about these chips that are uniquely flavorful, but I never hesitate to pick one of these up when I can find them

    5. Hardbite

    Amazon.com: Tim's Cascade Style Potato Chips, Sea Salt & Vinegar, 7.5 Ounce

    Had to throw a bone to my local BC chip manufacturer HardBite here. It’s a close tie between these and Tim’s Cascade Chips for my 5th place spot 🙂

     

     

  • What’s the most underrated tech brand?

    The most underrated tech brand is Sony.

    Many people have this image of Sony as being a company that was once innovative, but has since fallen from grace and is now mostly known for gaming (Playstation), Music (Sony Music) and Movies (Columbia Pictures), the latter two not particularly related to tech.

    Let me explain why Sony is still innovative in fact, at a higher level than Apple or Samsung or most other tech companies right now.

    Firstly, Sony has been one of the most innovative tech companies of all time. The list of their accomplishments cannot be understated:

    -They released the TR-55 one of their first products as the first transistor radio available in Japan

    -They released the TC-50 a compact cassette recorder that was equipped with every NASA astronaut

    -They released the VP-1100 the world’s first videocassette recorder

    -They release the first color video camera, the XC-1

    -The first commercial lithium ion battery was released by Sony in joint collaboration with Asahi Kasei

    –Trinitron – Wikipedia televisions, whose superior design ( the single-gun three-cathode picture tube, and the vertically aligned aperture grill) made it reign supreme as one of the best color televisions on the market for over 20 years

    -the Betamax – Wikipedia video format in the 1970s

    -the first portable music player, the Walkman – Wikipedia in the late 70s

    -SDDS format, a competitor to the Dolby surround sound format

    –S/PDIF – Wikipedia interface (the S stands for Sony)

    -the Super Audio CD – Wikipedia (Super Audio CD), still used today in some high end audiophile systems

    -Sony released the first CD player the CDP-101

    -Sony and Philips also jointly developed the Compact disc – Wikipedia

    -Sony introduced the 3.5″ floppy disk, which lasted for a good 2 decades after their introduction

    -the Blu-ray – Wikipedia format, was primarily spearheaded by Sony and still used today

    -Other more forgotten physical media formats (all proprietary to Sony): UMD, MiniDisc, Memory stick, PS Vita memory etc

    -the first popular CD based video game console, the Playstation (yes the Sega CD and Turbographx CD came before, but it was the PSOne that popularized the format for video games)

    -the best selling video game console of all time (and most people’s first DVD player), the PlayStation 2 – Wikipedia

    -the Vaio – Wikipedia line of laptops which amongst other innovations introduced the first LED backlit displays (became standard on all laptops after that), chiclet style keyboards (way before Apple and others did), thin and light designs (years before the MacBook Air), and switchable graphics (now standard on entry level gaming laptops)

    -the first consumer OLED TV (the Sony XEL-1 – Wikipedia)

    -the first popular robotic companions (AIBO – Wikipedia) and oddities such as the Sony Rolly – Wikipedia

    -the first truly immersive head mounted displays (Sony Glasstron, HMZ-T1 – Wikipedia, T2, and T3) – its designs are still being used today by smaller companies in the HMD niche

    -The first handheld gaming console to use exclusively digital games and no physical releases (PSP Go – way ahead of its time)

    -The Sony Tablet P – Sony Tablet – Wikipedia – was the first android device to use dual displays – this was 9 years before the Microsoft Surface Duo would bring back this design! Again, Sony was way ahead of their time.

    -The first handheld gaming console with an OLED display (PlayStation Vita – Wikipedia)

    -the LDAC (codec) – Wikipedia high res wireless audio codec

    -the 4.4mm Pentaconn balanced connector now used by most DAPs (portable audio players)

    That’s a heck of a lot of innovations for any tech company. But most people think Sony’s innovations have come and gone, and just like post Steve Jobs Apple, their products have languished since – and they couldn’t be more wrong! Sony is still innovating, they just have been very low key in marketing their more cooler products.

    Let’s take a look at Sony’s current tech portfolio now, shall we? Some things may surprise you

    -Sony’s most well known product right now is the PlayStation 4 – Wikipedia, and its the best selling console of its generation

    -Sony’s Mirrorless Sony α – Wikipedia Cameras have completely upended the DSLR market and as a result forced Canon and Nikon and other camera makers to move to mirrorless as well

    -Sony’s OLED TVs (like the A9F and A9G) have the speaker built into the display itself; no other television maker has done this

    -Sony’s Quantum Dot TVs using Triluminous technology – came out WAY before Samsung’s QLED TVs did. Samsung would have you believe they invented it – but it was Sony.

    -Sony’s Sony Xperia – Wikipedia phones are perennially underrated; they were one of the first smartphones to have water resistance (IP67+) and support high res audio and currently are the only smartphones on the market with a 21:9 cinema aspect ratio display. Also, they made the Xperia Pro-I, the first smartphone with a 1 inch camera sensor (the same sensor they have in their RX100 small size cameras)

    -Sony’s high end Walkmans and Headphones (like the WM1Z and Z1R) compete with the best of the best from other high end audio, each costing over $2k+ – as a high end audio brand, Sony is as respected as any other company which is impressive for a company who dabbles in basically every price range. Sony SA-Z1 Hi-Res Near Field Powered Speaker System Signature Series their latest speaker, an unheard of design that projects near-field sound to the listener, retails for over $6k.

    -Sony makes electric cars too

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-vaJv_WF8Q

    -Sony collaborates with Carl Zeiss to release their own lenses

    -Sony is a leader in the production space with the Sony Vegas production software and their pro cameras like the HDC-5500 that competes with Arri and RED, used in Hollywood films.

    -Sony is also a leader in the home audio space.

    https://electronics.sony.com/tv-video/tv-video-home-theater-sound-bars/soundbars/p/hta9

    is an example of a very cool 360 spatial sound mapping design incorporated into home speakers.

    https://electronics.sony.com/more/wearable-speaker/p/srsws1

    is a wearable speaker – only Bose makes something else like this.

    -Sony’s action cameras (AS300, X3000 etc) were the first on the market with optical image stabilization (OIS) – its competitors like GoPro were still using EIS (Electronic image stabilization)

    -They have a line of very successful noise cancelling wireless headphones (WH-1000XM3) as well as the first ever noise cancelling wireless earbuds (WF-1000X) as well. The fact that they caught up to Bose in noise cancellation technology is astonishing considering that Bose specialized in that technology for years while Sony has their hands in every industry.

    -Just other generally cool stuff that other companies do not care to try; Sony Glass Sound Speaker a glass speaker that doubles as a lamp? Sure.
    How about a projector that can project touch surfaces onto any area? Xperia Touch Official Website – Sony Mobile (Global English) this is astonishing technology, and I can just imagine if Apple made something like this it would grab headlines everywhere. But Sony as usual, keeps their cool stuff low key.

    -And lets not forget, they are still making aibo robots as well (again, which other company is doing this???).

    Sony should be getting much more appreciation for their innovation. They are still one of the most innovative companies on the market yet people always forget about them. It’s very rare that a company does so many things so well, and for so long. That’s why Sony tends to charge a premium for their devices.

    One thing I really wish Sony would do better is, name their products better and market better. That’s the advantage Apple and Bose have over them.

    https://youtu.be/7YF-jJXx8zQ

  • Which laptop brands are the best and worst? Why?

    So, qualification for myself, I collect computers and laptops especially:

    My favorite laptop brands:

    -ThinkPads. I own like 4 of them. Seriously they are awesome, the older Lenovos and IBMs tend to be better though. The ThinkPad X61 is my personal fav. The ThinkPad 25 which i also own below is my daily driver:

    -Dell Latitude. Similar to ThinkPads, but the new ones come with the nifty InfinityEdge display and tons of Thunderbolt 3 ports. Haven’t had an issue with any of them yet.

    -Alienware. Yeah, I used to think they were overpriced, but surprisingly they are well made. They use aluminum and magnesium for their builds which is better quality than the Asus ROG / MSI / Acer Predator ones which use plastic usually. I’ve been using the same Alienware for almost 2 years, everyday its been left on, for VR / gaming etc and had no issues

    -Apple. Yeah, I’m not a big fan of Apple in general, but I don’t doubt their Macbooks are well built and look really clean and stylish. The new Macbook Pros I do not recommend for professionals (go for a Dell XPS or ThinkPad X1 instead) but they make great consumer laptops (I know, it’s “Pro” but its actually an upgraded Mac Air)

    -Microsoft. Their Surface Pros and SurfaceBooks are excellent. They are taking design cues from Apple and some like the SurfaceBook are just straight up innovative. I used to use the X1 Yoga as my convertible but the SurfaceBook 2 is now my main convertible. detachable, convertible, dedicated graphics, 3:2 display with high ppi (in my ranking its the third best screen I ever had right behind the MacBook Pro and X1 Yoga with OLED), stylish, and portable.

  • Functionality over form for gadgets, Style over brand for clothing

    One thing that’s really changed about me from the past is I no longer care about showing off my wealth; that’s something that I’ve criticized Chinese people for a lot and still do. I don’t understand whats the point of showing off your wealth by buying a fancy car or wearing expensive designer clothing. Like whats the point? You want people to know you are rich? Why? So they can rob you? Sounds arrogant to me.

    I am actually quite blessed to say that since 2011 since I got my first job out of university, I haven’t really ‘struggled’ to make ends meet, per say. I’ve been living comfortably (I’m not rich.. just comfortable) for the past 6 years. But I was a poor university student before 2011 plus things in Canada usually cost more, so one of the first things I did when I first came to San Francisco was to buy up a lot of brand name clothing! A&F shirts, Lacoste polos, Lucky Brand / Guess jeans, you name it. I spent a lot of money on new clothes, only to realize that it didn’t really matter. I didn’t really care about the names and SF people really didn’t care either. When I lived in Korea I threw away all my American clothes and exchanged them for no name Korean brands – which were ironically better quality because they were made in Korea and alot of the name brand clothing was made in China. But the important thing is the style. I noticed in Korea people didn’t care about brands so much like in China – they cared about the style more. If it looked good, then wear it. Who cares who its made by? I learned this when I was in Korea.

    So now I don’t care what brand I buy or wear anymore as long as it looks good. The opposite applies to electronics. I own laptops by Asus, Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell and Apple. My speakers are made by LG, Sony, Yamaha, Klipsch, Polk Audio, Creative, and Bose. My phones come from Sony, Apple, Essential, Blackberry and Google. My TV is Panasonic. My headphones are Sony, Fender, Monster, Audeze and Master&Dynamic. My microphones are Shure. My cameras are by DJI and Sony. My Keyboards are from Aorus, Logitech and Microsoft. My mice are from Asus, Microsoft, Razer, and Logitech. So yes I have brand name electronics – but they are all different brands. I don’t really have brand loyalty but I do care that they are not some cheap no name Chinese knockoff. That is important to me. But thing to note is that for electronics, I care about functionality of what I buy more than the design.

    Take a look at this computer.

    Apple MacBook Pro
    Apple MacBook Pro

    This computer is the epitome of form over function. It’s sexy looking, it’s thin and it’s made of aluminum. It’s nice looking. But it’s rather limited in functionality. There’s no touch screen. The graphics are integrated. The keyboard has shallow travel. There’s only 2 ports on it and one of them is for charging. The only reason I have this computer is for MacOS – which is essential for my programming tasks. It may as well just be a travel ultrabook – and even then the iPad Pro + keyboard kills it in portability, or Microsoft Surface Book 2 just kill it for the specs. Overall I only have this computer for the OS thats it. This computer costs $1900 when configured with the Core i7, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

    Now look at this computer.

    Lenovo ThinkPad TP25
    Lenovo ThinkPad TP25

    This computer is the epitome of function over form. I use this one as my main computer over the MacBook – even though it costs the same amount of money, $1900. It’s not sexy looking sure – it looks like it came from the early 2000s in fact – but it has way more functions than the MacBook has. It comes with the same specs first off – Core i7, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. Furthermore – it’s tested to military standards, keyboard is spill-proof, the keyboard is a full 7 row keyboard with at least 4x the amount of key travel the MacBook Pro has, it has mobile broadband (WWAN) and a removable battery (the Macbook you can’t even upgrade the RAM), it has a full set of 8 ports (no dongles needed), it has Nvidia 940MX graphics (granted not the most powerful but still better than integrated), you can use the pointer without taking your hands off the keyboard (its called a trackpoint), and it has a touch screen – and it weighs just 0.5lbs more, and a full 3 year warranty. So yeah. I’m taking this computer almost every time (except when I need to program or use Final Cut Pro).

    Here I’m responding to TP25 haters…

    Function over form. For much the same reason I have a Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact over the new iPhone X. Because even though that phone looks better with the thin bezels and OLED screens and stuff – mine has more battery life, microSD, headphone jack and IP68. top spec hardware specs too. And did I mention at half the price of the iPhone X? Yeah that too. I’ll always take the more useful over the more stylish for electronics. For clothing I take the stylish over the brand name. Because clothing is a huge part of how people see you and how you present yourself. A good stylish looking shirt or blazer is going to draw way more attention than using a sexy bezel-less iPhone X. I guarantee you.